“Never Do That to a Book” by Anne Fadiman:
Who is the Speaker?
As described in the text, the speaker is Fadiman, a well-known writer and editor that graduated from Harvard University. Fadiman, unlike most people during her time, was a very distinct person regarding the treatment of books. For example, Fadiman pointed out the existence of two types of book lovers, courtly book lovers and carnal book lovers. Fadiman was the apparent speaker in the text due to the first-person narrative seen in the beginning (the use of “I”).
What is the Occasion?
The occasion of the text is when the speaker, Fadiman, witnessed a chambermaid brand her brother as a person who doesn’t love books when he left a book facedown over night. Despite this shock to Fadiman, she later found out that just as there is more than one way to love a person, there’s also more than one way to love a book. This was the part of Fadiman’s life in which she distinguished that her family members were carnal book lovers, those who write on books and bend the edges to save their ideas and show love for the book.
Who is the Audience?
The audience of this text would best veer toward passionate readers that read books on a daily basis. According to
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Fadiman, she probably imagined that her audience would be general people, which isn’t wrong at all. Considering the era back then, there were no technologies so people would have likely read more books and debated ideas. In order to connect to her audience, Fadiman stated a background story (occasion) that lead to her creations of the two types of book lovers, courtly and carnal. What is the Purpose? The purpose of this text is for Fadiman to prove that her family aren’t book abusers but just simply loving books in a different way, and to also prove her point that there are different ways to loving a book. For instance, each human beings are unique in every different ways; one person may show love through their actions while another may show love through their words. Using the same analogy, a courtly book lover shows love through keeping a book new and untouched, while a carnal book lover shows love by writing in the book and altering it. Because of this description, Fadiman proved to everyone that her inscriptions in books and such actions are not to abuse the book but show love uniquely. Not only does this benefit the Fadiman family, but also help people learn about the fact that there’s always more than one way to express love, whether it is for people or books. What is the Subject? The subject of this text is about the different ways that one can love a book according to Fadiman. The author reveals this subject by giving the audience a background story which causes the author to form the subject matter. For instance, Fadiman stated in her background story that her brother was falsely “branded” of abusing his books when only in reality, it was just his way of showing his love for the books. Due to this story, Fadiman proposed an idea that there are different ways of loving a book, one of courtly love and the other of carnal love. What is the Tone? In this text, Fadiman has a perceptive tone that is shown throughout.
Fadiman showed her perceptive tone through her use of analogy and personal examples of love. An analogy that Fadiman used was: as there are different ways to express love to another human being, there are also different ways to express love towards a book. This analogy is drawn from an insightful view about the concept of love, which reflects Fadiman’s perceptive tone. As for Fadiman’s personal examples of love, she describes that her brother would leave a book facedown next to the bedside table every night of his life and her old editor that would rip pages out of books and drop them even though the editor loves books. All these examples serve of supporting and reflecting Fadiman’s insightful
tone. What is the Theme? The theme of this text is that there are different ways to show love for a book, whether that be courtly or carnal love. In addition to this theme, the author also implies the fact that every individual differs through her explanations of the different ways that one can love a book.
“Don’t judge a book by it’s cover” is what been told around and what most people still don’t do. How we decide how something is worth by just looking at it without getting to know someone or something even closer. John Steinbeck wrote a book in 1937 about two farm workers moving place to place trying to find their happiness. By going through things together and keeping each other’s hope by reminding one another about their motivation on even trying and ways how the farm workers, Lenny and George are more different than similar. Lenny and George are more different because of their maturity, their attitude towards Curley’s wife, and behavior.
...s, and why he writes them at all. Instead of judging him, she tries to understand and fix it her own way, and it affects how he sees his writing:
In the 18th century, reading novels served as a pass time and a diversion from household chores for the women. Though formal female education is not developed, the female characters are seen having a keen interest in books, something that was earlier frowned upon for the sentimental content of books might be destructive to societal values. At the time, books were meant to teach and reflect upon the socially acceptable ideas of romance, courtship, and marriage. We find Miss Wharton asking for books to read from her friend Mrs. Lucy Sumner, “Send me some new books; not such, however, as will require much attention. Let them be plays or novels, or anything else that will amuse and extort a smile.” (Foster, 192) Mrs. Sumner sends her novels which she considers “chaste and of a lighter reading” (Foster, 196). We can thus construe that books and novels in The Coquette though meant for reading pleasure, also play form part of the female
In “Why Literature Matters” the author, Dana Gioia, argues that literature is very important in today’s society. He talks about the decline of reading over the years and the effects it has on different companies and communities. Gioia uses many persuasive techniques, such as evidence, jingoism, and diction, to try and persuade the reader that literature is important.
In the library she would alternate what types of books they would read. Whenever she would read to him she would read in a way that made you cling to every word the author wrote. In times like these, Rodriguez would become engaged in these books. “I sat there and sensed for the very first time some possibility of fellowship between reader and writer, a communication, never intimate like that I heard spoken words at home convey, but nonetheless personal.” (Rodriguez 228). During this part of Rodriguez’s life, his view towards books changed.
the U.S. reader the ability to make the situations and pastimes presented in the book
The Purpose of comparing the love of books with the love of people is to try and relate the two. How people can be two different kinds of lovers. Likewise, courtly lovers and carnal lovers. Just like the books. People love certain attributes about a family member or significant other. Treating them with respect, dignity, and kindness. At the same time, people have their flaws and weaknesses. They learn from mistakes. This in a way relates to the carnal reader because they write, draw, and neglect books, but it helps with the learning process. Caring and hard use of textbooks is like what love is to people. It’s not a sign of disrespect but of intimacy
Boyle, Coraghessan. "The Love of My Life." Making Literature Matter. 5th ed. Boston: Bedford/St.Martins, 2012. 55669. Print.
Ever since I was a child, I've never liked reading. Every time I was told to read, I would just sleep or do something else instead. In "A Love Affair with Books" by Bernadete Piassa tells a story about her passion for reading books. Piassa demonstrates how reading books has influenced her life. Reading her story has given me a different perspective on books. It has showed me that not only are they words written on paper, they are also feelings and expressions.
In A Room of One's Own the narrator begins an exploration of women in literature. She attempts to answer many questions regarding women. The first being why is literature about women written by men. She also critiques the scholarship of the great men of literature.
Literature is a form of art with many facets, many obvious and others subtle. The surface of literature can be composed of many elements such as genre, form, rhythm, tone, diction, sentence structure, etc. Time periods, authors’ personal style and type of work all determine what elements are used in the literature. The deeper more subtle side of literature is the use of symbolism, imagery and the significance of the work. In most works of literature, parallels can be drawn between the author’s personality and current life’s events through the subject matter, the characters, and the use of specific literary techniques. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu’s use of literary techniques in the first two stanzas of The Lover: A Ballad, are consistent throughout the six stanza ballad identifying and refuting the ways in which women were defined by literature of the 18th century era.
Radway, Janice. 1987. "Reading Reading the Romance." In Studies in Culture: An Introductory Reader, ed. Ann Gray and Jim McGuigan. London: Arnold, 1997, pp. 62-79.
Literature is the analytical, critical, emotional and psychological expression of human life which is nothing but a bouquet of multi-coloured relationships like filial relationship, conjugal relationship and sibling relationship. Though all the relationships are important part of life yet man-woman relationship is considered the most pervading human relationship. Emphasizing the importance and value of the man-woman relationship, D.H. Lawrence, a great English novelist, points out in ‘Morality and the Novel’, “The great relationship for humanity will always be the relation between man and woman. The relation between man and man, woman and woman, parent and child will always be subsidiary.” (1972: l30)
Literature has many purposes, and opens doors to unique worlds. Through Literature, we discover ourselves and world time and again.
Literary masterpieces are a reflection of society that helps educate by using spiritual, intellectual, and political themes. According to Woolf (2014), “…masterpieces are not single and solitary births; they are the outcome of many years of thinking in common, of thinking by the body of the people, so that the experience of the mass is behind the single voice” (para. 12). This paper will explore the powerful literary masterpieces from different cultures where their lessons are still relevant today. The characters and their interactions make the story entertaining, while the lesson to be learned from the characters makes it a masterpiece. Societies come and go, but the lessons from these stories never change. The purpose of this paper is to define what a masterpiece is, how it reflects on society, the qualities it contains, and how they are still relevant today.